Folks:

So driving to the lake with a 25000km's ago "fully" rebuilt (top to bottom) 350. No problems, pull over to get some beer, truck stalls. Won't restart like it's overheated (turning over very slow), but my temp is bang on where it should be. Whatever, grab some beer, wait a few minutes, still hard starting but get her going... Running like a bag, ticking like a lawnmower, and rattling like someone tossed a box of marbles into the engine... But not knocking like I've had happen in the two previous used engines I had tried... At least it didn't sound like a knock... definately more of a rattle.

Any how, huge power loss, but I was pissed off so limped it the 20 minutes longer it would take to get to the lake. When it was rebuilt, was done by a "supposedly reputable" racing engine guy who is always at the car shows around here. had him hone it, new rings, port/polish the heads, put a 264HR comp cam in, line bore, turned crank, oversized bearings, ARP studs in the mains... 25000 Kms!!!! Sweet F** all for a rebuilt engine to go right?? During this period, oil pressure had dropped from what it was before, but not drastically. Seemed again, like the oil just got REALLY hot, because any time I've spun a bearing in the base I've lost ALL oil pressure. At idle it was just a touch lower than it usually was, and would still come up when revved, just not as much as was normal for this engine... also, she did then start to heat up a little, but I'm chalking that up to the fact because the pully was loose and wobbling, it may not have been turning the water pump properly, but still just enough to keep her cool (FYI - I have 160degree thermostat, and the temp came up to just about 180-190)...

So anyways, talk to a couple guys, they say maybe the balancer seperated. Go back to the lake this past weekend with spare balancer in hand, pull shroud, fan and crank pully (which was loose, so probably part of the noise issue), grab the balancer by hand and try to pull it off, no go, still on the crank pretty good and no seperation... but, alot of play in the crank. Up/down, side-to-side, and forward/back...

Kinda thought at first the crank was split, but if that was the case it wouldn't run at all right? So what else could this be? What would make the rattle that I'm hearing?

Any help would be appreciated. At this point I'm pretty pissed off, and thinking of going and burning engine builder guys house down, cuz I'm sure he must of done something wrong or cut some kind of corners, or who knows, maybe charged me for the work/parts and only did some of it... what would I know right, not like I was there watching him do it!

Any ways... Is there any chance this is something simple/easy? Any way it could be fixed with the engine in the truck? I mean, I've gotten really good at pulling engines, can do it in a few hours now... but I'm pretty tired of having to do that on this particular truck!!

 

Not to be rude, but be prepared to get the, this is a 1982 - 1992 Camaro and Firebird site a.k.a 3rd gen Site.

 

Oh and why are you port and polishing 193 heads?

 

Yeah I know. The 193's pretty much ended up being a waste of my money... But there was some good info on TGO about porting/polishing the 193's and getting decent results... DynoDon I think was one of the few that had done some flow testing with them...

But some help from you folks would be very much appreciated. I've been helped many by some really good folks on TGO many times... Just looking for a little input... All you have to do is ignore that my 350/700r4 is in a truck...

 

Just saying they closed and locked the post from the 96 Firebird owner, and that was even a Firebird:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...ring-upon.html

So just letting you know up front, with all things being equal, this may very well happen here also.
Just an FYI -- Nothing personal about your Truck.

I totally understand why they do this though, because I belonged to a Firebird and Camaro site that the admin and moderators started to let all their buddies join even though they didn't own Camaros or Firebirds and next thing you know it wasn't much of a Camaro or Firebird site anymore.
It became more of a young guy with a car site.

 

Fair enough... I appreciate your candor. Just hope the mods can forgive my indiscretion, TGO has just always seemed like the best place to get "good" information from...

And the ONLY place to get DIY-PROM/Tuning info from... Which is why I originally joined...

For any one else reading this and taking offence to my being here, please accept my appologies.

 

None taken man. Hope you get your motor smoothed out, and if I had useful info I'd have said it already.

 

My appologies too, I could be totally out of place even mentioning it, since I am not a moderator or anything. I come here for the similar reasons, solid information and that its a third gen site.

 

This won't get closed, because the tech part of the post is the same in that it applies to 3rdgen F-cars as well, its just in a different body.

Take off the valve covers and check the valve lash. I know thats something that should go bad gradually, and not usually all at once, but my motor acted similarly when it snapped a rocker stud a couple years ago - no power, ran like a pig, no power. If its a broken stud, you'll know right away, but it could be a couple rocker nuts backing off or something as well. Couldn't hurt to check the pushrods as well if you do find an issue with a rocker/rockers, and make sure they are visually ok (no gouges etc) and straight as well. You can check straightness by rolling it on a peice of flat glass.

Check your vacuum hoses, especially the large ones like for the brakes and PCV, make sure nothings come disconnected, broken, cracked, etc.

Check the distributor, make sure the clamp is nice and tight on the intake manifold (to rule out the timing slipping if it was loose). Check all the plug wires are tight to the cap and plugs, and that none are broken, burnt, shorted, etc, which could cause a bad miss or no firing on a cylinder at all (battled this with my LT1 a couple times now). I had a wire rub through on the PS pulley on my '97 Z28 and ground out, which made for no spark AT ALL for cyl #8, and it acted as you described - rattled, no power, ran rough, etc.

Check that all the spark plugs are tight in the heads as well.

All I can suggest for now - hope its some help...

 

That it is, and I'm sure they will forgive your typo. You know...the one where you said "1991 K1500" but meant "1991 Camaro".

 

Great. Thanks for the responses Air_Adam and black89ws6...

Gonna have a buddy with a flatbed do me a favour and go pick her up tomorrow. Hoping something simple like you say ... well, simpler than the bottom end that is!!

Any ideas about the play in the crankshaft? Doesn't seem normal to me...

Thanks again!!!

Ben

 

My L03 has play in the crank, but it has 155,000 mi. on it, but there's really no up down play like you described.

 

I've never had to deal with a crank issue like what you described, so I can't really say anything there with any certainty, but does it feel like the whole crank is moving, or just the front of it? Are you sure its the crank itself moving and not just the damper? I assume you are using a stock cast crank?

I'd suggest shooting a PM to 'Sofakingdom', as I'm sure he's dealt with issues like that before (include a link to this thread too maybe) and has been great help to me in the past. Very knowledgable and helpful guy.

 

Just figured I'd let you all know, in case any one was following this.

Pulled the engine, put her on the stand, flipped her over and pulled the pan. Sure enough, very first counter weight on the crank: snapped clean through the oiling hole.

Serves me right for adding HP and cheaping out on a crank. Oh well, main bearings weren't terrible, but cooked never the less. Rod bearings were fine. Block is a little scored from the weight scraping along the side of it, but whatever, shouldn't be an issue.

Biggest thing for me is: NOTHING GRENADED... So I think I'm ok.

Although now I'm thinking since it'll need some machine work any ways, why not put an eagle street performance 383 kit in while I'm at it??

Any how... thanks for all your help/suggestions.

 

!!?

broken crank=ok !!?

I see the point, that your block wasn't trashed, but to break the crank and, "I think I'm ok."

Your optimism is impressive. Way to be a "beer's half full" kinda person!!

 

I'd suggest shooting a PM to 'Sofakingdom', as I'm sure he's dealt with issues like that before (include a link to this thread too maybe) and has been great help to me in the past. Very knowledgable and helpful guy.[/quote]


i havent seen sofa on here for a while though.

 

Everything I read here about cranks, seems to say stock cranks should be fine with <400HP <6000rpm. The information in your sig does not seem to indicate you went beyond that.

Perhaps the crank was mishandled during the last rebuild, or the balancer was bad. Or could just be shat happened. I don't think you overbuilt the engine for that crank though.

Whatever you do with the engine, I would think hard about throwing the balancer away with the busted crank, just in case it was the reason...

 

I would have to agree, unless the crank was faulty before you put it in, glad to hear you found out what was wrong though man. Hope it all works out for ya.